


i am mountain

by snowmissus (soul_of_blaze)



Series: The Took's Arrangement [1]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Erebor Never Fell, Gen, set before the main fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-10
Updated: 2014-06-10
Packaged: 2018-02-04 04:54:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1766215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soul_of_blaze/pseuds/snowmissus





	i am mountain

I

When it had long passed, the Fell Winter would be recorded by any hobbit that survived it as a bitter remembrance. Not many hobbits even lingered on the memories of that winter, in fact the entirety of the population disregarded it in daily conversation. Winter was not talked about as frequently, however, and the only comments you heard were that of praying to the Green-lady that the winters were short. Long, it held in memory only and never was it mentioned by mouth.

They lost too many that winter, others who barely survived.

And it was not, as commonly thought by the Men, only due to the white wolves that they lost their people. An unknown sickness had taken foothold in the young and elderly, even among some of the adult hobbits.

They had no cure, no way of knowing when it would come nor when it would claim the sick into death. It was only through the help of the dwarves of Ered Luin that they survived the winter sickness.

Despite the help of Gandalf the Grey and the Rangers of the North, who provided the hobbits with the food they could no longer secure with the Brandywine River frozen and Buckland comprised for the length of winter, neither the wizard nor the rangers could offer help involving their sickness. Which was why, only a month into the Fell Winter, Belladonna Baggins, more commonly known as Belladonna Took before she married, sought help not for food but for the sickness that had mysteriously taken some of her people and held onto others.

“Where are we going?” asked Bilbo, her son, as he clung to the sleeve of her coat. Neither had been prepared for the bitter cold of the winter. He wore a few layers and Belladonna had taken her husband’s coat in place of her thinner jacket.

“Back,” she said, with a sigh in her words.

They had been unable to find help. She’d thought searching about would turn someone who could help up, but Gandalf had been gone for over a week. The rangers still proved unhelpful, besides fending off the wolves. Long the Brandybucks had fled their halls for the Great Smials of Tuckborough. It had been on the word of Mirabella Brandybuck, Belladonna’s younger sister. After the Horn of Buckland had sounded, the clan had realized they could not live so close to the crossing point of the wolves.

By now, nearly all the hobbits in Hobbiton had fallen back into Tuckborough as well. The wolves did not make it into Hobbiton easily, but they had once or twice slipped by a ranger. From that time on, the hobbits only visited their holes and homes every so often and always during the day. Much of winter had been spent in her father’s spacious halls. The Thain had no issue providing his people with a safer place to stay.

Belladonna had hoped she’d be bringing good news to her father, but it appeared as though she would have to tell him she could find no help. She held her son’s hand tighter.

It did not help that Bungo, her husband, had fallen sick in the last week. The day before she left for help he had not been able to get out of bed, and she had made a last minute decision on taking their son with her. Bilbo did not need to see his father grow sicker, or catch it for that matter.

Where they had food, they lacked the medicine or knowledge. It created a large problem, for their people were dying off and all they could do was watch. Belladonna prayed silently as she and Bilbo made their way through the snow, to the Green-lady that they would find someone on their way back. At the least, it kept her occupied.

But for all her prayers, this one seemed the only one their Green-lady found herself answering. As Belladonna pulled her son alongside her, and Tuckborough began appearing on the edge of the horizon, a small group of figures marched in front of her very eyes.

Belladonna stopped. Beside her, Bilbo peeked a curious head around his mother’s skirt. He had only seen the wizard and rangers, not any such creatures as the ones that marched together and headed for what could only be the mountain. They were almost small like hobbits, but a bit bigger. Still, they were not as big as the Big Folk.

Eyes wide, Bilbo whispered, “What are they?”

“Dwarves,” answered Belladonna. Her eyes swept over them before she pulled Bilbo in front of her, fixing the cloak she’d given him and walking them slowly towards the dwarves. “Come, darling, be quiet now and I will talk with them. They may be able to offer us some help. I pray.”

II

“Can you not help us?”

 Belladonna crossed her arms over her chest. The dwarves murmured amongst themselves, as though the simple request happened to be just too much. But their Lord, by the name of Thorbar and reportedly related to some greater dwarves, waved them off.

“I may be able to offer some help, to your people, but I do not know what we will be truly able to do.”

That was enough for her.

“And that will have to do, won’t it?” Belladonna held his gaze.

The dwarf lord inclined his head, a small smile splaying over his mouth. “I shall grant you a troop of the dwarves who serve under me and a healer.”

“What?” She didn’t mean to, but at the mention of just one healer, the hobbit blew up. “A single healer?”

“Aye, and you are damn lucky,” snapped another voice and Belladonna whipped around with a word to say on the tip of her tongue. Which never happened, as the dwarf striding towards her did not let her get the words out. “The healer you’re being granted the use of, well, he’s all the way from Erebor and only on a visit. But he’s trapped here until your winter blows over.”

“Enough, Flardar,” the dwarf Lord looked less than pleased. He turned his attention back on Belladonna. “Master Baggins. You will be granted the skills of Óin. What my son says is true. Master Óin has been gifted by Mahal with a healing grace. You would be wise to take advantage of it.”

 Though she did not understand completely why all the dwarves referred to her with the title Master, it appeared as though they did not attempt to tell such things apart. Still, even then, she did not find it comforting that the dwarves assumed she was masculine, or that it was their default. Did their women not make it out much?

Belladonna had heard such nonsense, but she hadn’t believed it before.

“If you need anything else, Master Baggins?”

“Hm,” Belladonna grinned into her hand, “I would request that you let me take your son, Flardar was it?, with me. I’m sure we could use such an informative dwarf with us.”

Not a single dwarf was surprised when, the day following, a glowering Flardar followed two hobbits and pack of dwarves down the road and back towards the Shire.

III

“I want to see him,” Bilbo frowned up at Belladonna, tugging insistently on her skirts. She shook him off, batting away his pulling hands.

“Absolutely not, Bilbo.”

“But-”

“You heard me. Your father is too sick. Go to your room. You can see him when he is no longer sick. Or do you want to get sick? You know, he won’t be happy or have the time he needs to relax and rest if you are sick because of him.”

Bilbo quieted down, staring down at his feet and at hers. Belladonna’s hair curled more than Bilbo’s, and it was quite a bit darker than his as well. Truly, Bilbo was a near replica of his father in looks and (much much later in his life, when he reached his maturity) personality.

But for now? For now the tween acted much like Belladonna. He wished and prayed to the Green Lady that the snow, that the winter would melt away. Just before the winter had hit, she had promised him walking with the elves and a visit to Rivendell.

Bungo had nearly fainted at the notion of his son leaving Hobbiton for the wilds.

But as always, Belladonna had merely grinned and tucked Bilbo against her side, mussing his curls with a hand while she mocked his father for worrying too much.

Truthfully, Bilbo had never seen his mother so worried sick. Never. She’d always been a bit of a free spirit and both Bilbo and Bungo had accepted it. Bilbo had just thought it was how she always was and nothing more than that.

“No one is allowed, sweetling,” Belladonna’s hand in his hair startled Bilbo out of his frowning at their feet. “That is what Master Óin said. Go on, now, and I’ll be along shortly for lunch.”

He nodded, turning and disappearing down the twisting hall of Bag End. Belladonna waited for a long minute, until she was sure her child would not be scampering back up the hall with something he’d forgotten.

Óin stood silently, but he turned when the door opened and then shut. She paused, eyes flying to Bungo lying in their bed.

“Well?”

“Can’t say I can give you any good news.”

“Well. I want to know if he is going to live or not,” she kept her voice under control. She had kept her temper in check with the dwarves and she wasn’t about to stop now. As long as Bungo did not…

He would not.

She had to believe that.

“I think he shall,” the dwarf moved around to the other side of the bed, and Belladonna took up her space on the edge of the bed. “He certainly has better chances now that we have something to give him. I assume the others that are sick, they’re sick with the same thing?”

“As far as we know,” she murmured, keeping her voice low as she brought one of Bungo’s hands into hers. They were not as cold now, at least.

“Aye, well that is good, it is,” Óin said. “Better to be working with one sickness than multiples.”

“Do you have any idea when he might wake up?”

Óin did not say anything for a long time. In that time, Belladonna merely sat where she was and rubbed her fingers over Bungo’s knuckles. Truthfully, she’d always been the stronger of the two. But that came from deep within her Tookish blood, and from days spent traveling with Gandalf. The Bagginses were not as hardy as the Tooks, for in hobbits they were a respectable family who did nothing but sit about and gossip loudly. Where the Tooks had long ago been known for their mixing with others and adventuring (after all, one of her many brothers had seen the Sea, a feat for their kind and Belladonna had visited Elves).

Regardless, she’d fallen in love with Bungo. Maybe she liked having someone to ground her, though on the occasion she did wish to go back to see the Elves, and climb into trees. She had taken Bilbo on a few endeavors, but nothing grand as her tween years had been.

Bungo would probably faint if she did.

She couldn’t imagine losing him, neither of them if she were being truthful. But never Bungo. He had become the light of her life, a rock in swirling life of hers.

Belladonna startled out of her thoughts, glancing back at the dwarf. Had he said something? After a moment, she realized he hadn’t but he had turned back toward them.

“If he makes it through another day, I can say that he will be almost on the side of certainly surviving,” he offered her a small thing of a smile. “But I am afraid, I cannot tell you when he might stir again.”

She bowed her head, turning back to watch the sleeping face of her husband.

That was a much easier concept, for him to be sleeping away as though he’d just spent far too much time in the sun.

IV

The arrival of the Lord of the Blue Mountains might have caused more of a shock, but for the fact that all the hobbits were still crowded into the Thain’s Halls. Not even Bungo’s cousins, the Sackville-Bagginses, had the heart in complaining.

True, with the help of the Dwarves added in, they were not suffering so much. Food no longer felt much of an issue, nor defense and not even their health.

Not that they hadn’t lost a few hobbits to the Winter Sickness that’d been plaguing them. Bungo had been the latest case, only falling ill with it when he’d been to see one of the Chubb girls. Neither he nor Belladonna were healers, although his mother had been and they’d supposed he might be able to help.

In the end, they were glad for the dwarf healer.

Belladonna did not expect much interaction with the Lord, at least on her end. Her father would undoubtedly meet with him, for thanking and such.

What came as a much larger celebration of their health, though, was the result of her father’s overwhelming happiness at the help the Lord had offered his daughter and the rest of their people. It also resulted in the heads of each family being called in.

But she certainly did not expect to find herself invited as well. She could have presumed that it was because she was a child of the Thain himself but neither of her sisters were there nor any of her brothers.

And Bungo’s mother sat beside her. Laura Baggins had not ever been openly rude to Belladonna, but she well knew that the hobbit matriarch did not like her. Belladonna had not attempted to impress her mother-in-law, however.

Lord Thorbar sat next to Gerontius, around a round table and looking over a map of the Shire. Belladonna grinned behind her hand. The map had been done up by Bungo, a gift he’d given the Thain when he’d been accepted into the family.

Around the other heads of the respective houses were gathered. Belladonna had found herself between Laura Baggins and Gorbadoc Brandybuck, who had only claimed his spot as head of the Brandybuck clan the year before, as well as the Master of Buckland.

Belladonna glanced around again, taking in the faces of each of the heads of the families that the Shire had been long populated with.

Adalgar Bolger sat comfortably by Linda Proudfoot, although Belladonna could easily see the mild irritation on Bungo’s sister’s face as she glowered slightly at Aldalgar. But when she caught Belladonna’s eye, she smiled.

Chica Baggins sat on the other side of Linda, her eyes downcast while the hobbits muttered among themselves. Bingo had fallen sick shortly after Bungo, and so had Bodo. It forced them into acting as matriarchs of their houses. Even though Chica held the Baggins name, Bingo had taken over the Chubb family. Their son had the double surname, further more.

Hugo Boffin, she spotted him as well. Her youngest sister’s husband, as it was. He sat by Halfred Greenhand, who was the technical head of a very small clan. Belladonna quite liked him, for he'd been tending to their garden the last few years. Hob Gammidge, head of the Gamgees sat on his other side.

Unfortunately for Hob, Camellia Sackville sat by his side and she glared outright at Belladonna. 

Although she could hardly care for that, not when she was here and she could be by Bungo’s side, waiting for him to wake up.

 The Thain and the Lord of the Blue Mountains appeared to be done discussing what it was that had required the map. In fact, Lord Thorbar turned his attention toward the heads of the families. He smiled when he saw Belladonna, seated between her mother in law and her sister’s husband.

“Let us know why in the Green Lady’s name we are here, Gerontius,” Laura Baggins demanded. She looked, besides Camellia, the most unhappy with the turn of events. “When many of our kin are sick!”

“Peace, Missus Baggins,” Thorbar held up a hand, responding in turn for the Thain. “Your kin are in the hands of a well gifted healer. I am afraid that… my King has requested something of me. The Thain and I have agreed it was necessary to not leave any of you out of the agreement.”

“Agreement?” Gorbadoc frowned.

“Aye,” Thorbar glanced around, at each of the hobbits before back over to Gerontius. “We have come to understand your people are not only a fertile folk, but that your lands thrive well in spring and the other seasons beside winter.”

“It’s true,” Camellia said. “Any hobbit born in the Shire has a natural love for things that grow.”

“I hardly see the significance of that to you dwarves,” Hugo Boffin grumbled. “Always shut up in your mountains, hardly the folk that could nurture a plant from the earth.”

To Belladonna’s surprise, Halfred made a disgruntled noise and glared at Hugo. “Don’t make them think ill of us, Boffin, those dwarves have saved us this winter and I think we can offer them a kindness or two.”

After a moment, the other hobbits that had yet to make a statement murmured in their agreement. Hugo sat back in mild embarrassment. Yet, no one had asked what sort of agreement the dwarf lord’s king requested.

Belladonna had an odd, mildly disturbed feeling about it.

“Regardless of what they think of us,” she said, directing her words more to her father than anyone else. “Father. What sort of an agreement?”

“Our position, where the Shire lies so close to the edge of the Blue Mountains.. the dwarves believe that it would be advantageous of them to be connected with our people,” Gerontius cleared his throat. “Especially since we are a peaceful kind and closer than Bree. For food, I mean to say.”

“Hardly a problem you need to concern us with, Thain,” Laura Baggins sniffed.

“Perhaps,” he agreed. “Were it not for the fact that this is not all they want us to agree to.”

Camellia frowned now, glancing over at Belladonna. She shrugged her shoulders up in reply, for she had no idea of whatever might have already been agreed upon.

“What is it, then?” Adaglar Bolger demanded now.

“Simply existing at the base of Ered Luin does not give us any sort of alliance, nor does merely providing us with trade during the productive seasons,” Thorbar placed his hands on the table. “King Thrain has requested that there be a marriage, among the dwarves and hobbits. He has very specific arrangements.”

An uproar started, the hobbits yelling in surprise and in disagreement with the dwarf King’s apparent demands. Belladonna kept quiet, until the Thain had quieted down the hobbits enough that she could speak over everyone else.

“And what were those?”

“Pardon?”

“What were the specific arrangements?”

Thorbar glanced at Gerontius before looking back over at Belladonna.

“He asked that Thain Gerontius agree that the hobbit in question be from his line,” the dwarf lord’s words quieted most of the hobbits then. “Obviously, all his children are already married off so it would be then the next of his line, his grandchildren.”

Belladonna stilled, as did Gorbadoc and Hugo. While Belladonna was the only child of Gerontius’s there, both Gorbadoc and Hugo were married to her sisters, with children of their own. Any of theirs could be the one.

“When is this supposed to happen?” Gorbadoc happened to be the first to break out of their joined surprise. He kept himself calm. The children he had, they were all too young at the time but that didn’t mean in a few years…

“We haven’t agreed upon a time, and I don’t think King Thrain will ever do that,” Thorbar at least sounded apologetic. “It will just be something you must wait on. But he has said, as well, that he understand if any of your children find themselves married before then. So there is no need to try and prevent that.”

A murmur of relief among the three but Belladonna glanced back over at her fathter.

“Have you no mind to tell my sisters and brothers?”

“I will,” Gerontius said, quieter. “But I wanted everyone to understand this will happen. That the dwarves will from now on be involved with our people.”

By the end of the meeting, they’d all agreed upon it. Belladonna still felt something clench in her stomach as she made her way back to where Bungo and Bilbo were.

V

Bungo woke up to the sound of voices in the air about him. He recognized Belladonna’s almost instantly, but not the other voice at all.

Opening his eyes, he found Belladonna leaning over him. She startled but then smiled widely as she came back into his focus.

“There you are.”

“Bella,” he said, closing his fingers around hers. “What is going on?”

“Be calm,” she assured. “You’ve been rather sick. But you are better now, and the Winter is nearly passed.”

He sat up slowly, with her help and nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw the dwarf standing at the other end of the room. Beside him, Belladonna shushed him with a pat to his hand before she stood up. This somehow seemed to alert the dwarf and he turned around to look at them.

“Ah!” The dwarf grinned, walking forward and only stopping when he stood by Bungo. “You’ve made it through this sickness, Master Baggins.”

“Who are you?” Bungo leaned toward Belladonna, who put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

“Bungo, this is Óin. He is a dwarven healer. Don’t worry, he’s very nice and he has been treating you and the other who were sick,” she smiled at him. “I hate to ask you, Óin, but I need to talk in private with my husband.”

Though, the dwarf did not seemed at all bothered by the request. Instead, he left the room the moment she’d asked. Bungo relaxed against the pillows, catching her eye as she sat more onto the bed.

“Bungo, there’s something I need to tell you.”

VI

“Where are you going?”

Belladonna only glanced up briefly at Bungo before she went back to pulling on her cloak. Beside her, Bilbo excitedly did the same. Tomorrow…

The older hobbit smiled as he watched his child. Tomorrow, Bilbo would come of age. They were having a grand party, under the Party Tree just over the hill of Bag End. Their only child (and not from lack of effort, but it seemed that Belladonna had more issues bearing than they had thought) finally coming of age.

Always, though, there was a thought at the back of both their minds.

There’d been no sign of the dwarves from Erebor coming at any time before now and Bungo hardly thought they would suddenly show up.

He hoped.

“The market,” Belladonna smiled as he picked up the basket, but their son took it from her before she’d had it for even a few seconds. “We should only be an hour or so. Bilbo wants to pick up somethings for the party tomorrow, gifts and such. Do you want anything for dinner tonight?”

“I have already planned dinner, Bella,” Bungo stood up and went to them to wish them goodbye. “You shouldn’t take too long, Holman was grumbling about a storm coming this afternoon.”

“We won’t be too long,” Bilbo huffed, crossing his arms but there was a smile on his face when Bungo reached up and mussed his hair.

In the last few years, Bilbo had sprouted up in height and while he stood taller than Bungo, he had inherited Belladonna’s Tookish height well enough that it put him over many of his Baggins relatives but none of his Took relations, not even Belladonna.

When they had left, Bungo settled down for tea and one of the books Belladonna had long ago brought back.

He would regret answering the door in a few minutes, but for the time, Bungo only thought that it was turning out to be a pleasant day.


End file.
